Yorgos Lanthimos' surreal sci-fi tinged drama, Poor Things, which stars The Amazing Spider-Man actress Emma Stone as a take on Frankenstein's Monster (sort of), arrives in theaters this weekend, and Searchlight has now shared a new clip from the movie online.
In this brief sneak peek, Bella Baxter informs one of her suitors, Max McCandless (Ramy Youssef), that her former lover Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) was not best pleased when he discovered that she was working as a lady of the night for a time.
Max confesses that he is jealous of the men that got to sleep with Bella, but notes that her body is her own to give freely if she chooses.
Bella responds that she usually charges 30 francs.
Stone spoke about her role during an interview with Vanity Fair, revealing that Bella is "my very favorite character I've ever gotten to play."
“I had a lot of extra hair sewn into the back of my head. It was super heavy but really worth it. More than anything, it’s my very favorite character I’ve ever gotten to play. The character I play in this movie is Bella, and I am completely in love with her. She’s not like anybody else. She doesn’t have a history, so she’s building herself as she goes. She’s so interested in the world, and she’s full of life and passion and curiosity. It was just incredible to play somebody who has that kind of joy and that sense of adventure in them and basically her whole entire lifetime. Her growth was a huge gift.”
Here's what Lanthimos had to say about the film's sex/nudity and Stone's commitment to filming the scenes in a recent interview.
“It’s a shame that Emma could not be here to speak more about it, because it will be coming all from me,” he said. “First of all, sex is an intrinsic part of the novel itself, her freedom about everything including sexuality. Secondly, it was very important for me to not make a film that would be prudish, because that would be like completely betraying the main character."
“We had to be confident Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes and she understood that right away,” he added.
While Poor Things does have some detractors, the majority of the reviews have been positive, and the film currently sits at a very impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Check out the clip at the link below.
"From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation."
The movie has been rated R for “Strong and pervasive sexual content, graphic nudity, disturbing material, gore, and language."
Poor Things is set to hit theaters on December 8.